Our opinion: Mourning our losses

September 11, 2013

Except for the very young, virtually every one of us can remember where they were and what they were doing 12 years ago today.

We can remember the shock, the fear, the feeling of helplessness.

That was the day America lost its innocence and joined the growing membership of the unfortunate club of nations which have suffered major terrorist attacks.

And, a cloud has hung over us since.

The shock and the trauma subsided years ago, but we as a society have given up much in the way of personal freedom and privacy, which may never really be returned to us.

Subsequent legislation to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, aimed at preventing such tragedies from occuring again have - rightly or wrongly -taken away many rights and personal freedoms we enjoyed as Americans prior to the Age of Terror.

Today, across America and Warren County, people will be reflecting on the thousands of lives lost in those coordinated attacks, the lives lost and the bravery of those who rushed selflessly to the scene of devastation, and the sacrifice of those who went to the Middle East in search of the perpetrators and others who would do us harm.

But there is something else we should mourn as well: that which was taken from us in response to the new danger.

There was a time when you knew more about your nextdoor neighbor than your government did. There was a time when you could board an airplane without having either a full body scan or a pat-down. There was a time when a secret federal court would have seemed like something George Orwell might have written about.

We have lots of things to contemplate today, and we should, each of us, take the time to do it.